90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. The rest live in Edmonton. Very few people live in "northern" Canada. Granted, it still gets much colder than most places in the US even a few miles north of the border.

There are about 20 000 people in yellowknife and about 30 000 in whitehorse. True, that's not much, but they're much more North than Edmonton. Plus all the towns and small cities that are far from the border. The major cities are usually close to the border (though even Calgary is over 100 miles away), but Canadians don't all live in major cities.

Sometimes you do up in the northeast. As a Rhode Islander, I can say there have been a few instances where I've needed a sweatshirt. It's not often though :o I forgot where I was going with this but yea. Poor OP, must have been damn cold inside for him to be shivering that hard.